Photophilia

#2) Photography 101

  I've loved taking pictures for a while, then with the evolution of Facebook and Instagram my picture-taking increased four fold (joke, well kinda).  I've always had an interest in taking photography up as a hobby.  However, I seem to have these great ideas about things I want to try with little follow through (I will not admit that to my parents, ever).  So when I expressed an interest in photography and was offered free lessons randomly, it was like the 30/30 mother ship was calling me home.  

 
My personal photography guru, Joel Galvan (above), is a creative jack-of-all trades.  He is a musician, artist, and photographer -- photography being his main passion.  He first got interested in photography during the pre-digital era.  Now he has gone full throttle with the camera technology of today -- which means I got to play with some bad ass equipment during the "skills" portion of my lesson.  

I wonder what this one does....(confident)

First, we had "class" which involved me actually taking notes and/or Joel stealing my pen to correct my note taking technique.  (Made me rethink the possibility of going back to grad school.....)  Then I had to tackle all those little buttons on the camera that I usually avoid like the plague.  The ones that have forced me to turn my camera off then back on because I accidentally pushed one and have no idea how to recover.  Crop factor, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO, WB ('white balance' for those of you that didn't know) <-- read this aloud with undertones of new knowledge superiority.  All these terms were both foreign and irrelevant to incredible amateurs such as myself.    I knew there would be a lot to learn, but I had no idea how much is involved with taking those cool, arsty pictures that I love so much.  Once Joel was sure my head was going to explode from all the information and/or coffee I'd consumed at this point -- it was time for the fun part!

Shouldn't have pushed that one...(defeat)

  We launched into our "skills" part of the day which consisted of walking around and taking pictures.  Location:  Deep Ellum, one of my favorite areas of Dallas.  Great art + great people = great for photos.  We shot everything -- vintage shops, graffiti, wall art, each other, plants, and the occasional accidental photo of part of my face or the sky taken by yours truly because I was still learning my way around the camera.  Note:  the cameras weighed a lot -- like big, metal babies hanging from your neck.  And if I'm being honest, when I woke up this morning my arms and chest were a little sore.  Time to hit the gym perhaps....pathetic.  I literally took hundreds of photos...and quickly figured out this was going to be an addiction for me.  LOVED IT!   

My very first photo attempt....

  Five hours of shooting; with a few breaks for beer, lunch, and the times when I would get side tracked in the vintage shops with my "oh, something shiny" mentality.  Joel was okay with my purchases of vintage buttons, jars, and bracelets -- as long as I was taking pictures of them.  It was an all-day affair and worth it.  From learning the skills, to shooting, to editing -- there is a lot of work that goes into all those great photos that we love so much.  I have a new appreciation for photographers and their artful eyes.  Below are a few of the photos I took, but all of them are on my facebook.  So have a looksy at the evolution of an amateur to an amateur + one day photographer!